Silica nano fibers modified with

The SEM picture in Figure 7 shows a cut surface from a PDMS modified with silica nano fibers. The picture shows two fibres protruding from the surface and two holes resulting from fibres being pulled free from the material shown. Clearly this is indicative of a weak interface between the PDMS matrix and silica nano fibers. It should be noted that the production process for the silica nano fibre results in a significant amount of small particulate material. However, the stress strain response obtained from the PDMS systems formulated with the nano fibre shows some interesting trends. 

Figure 7. SEM of the cut surface from a PDMS modified with silica nano fibers. There are two fibers protruding from the surface and two holes resulting from fibers being pulled free.

Figure 12. Stress strain curves for PDMS modified with 5% silica nano fibre, CNF and with more refined single and multi walled nano fiber.

NR is one of the world s important natural resources and sihca is considered environmentahy friendly upon disposal. Thus, in terms of sustainability development, development of sihca-fihed NR nanocomposites opens new opportunities for producing green materials/products such as tyres. Traditionally, carbon black is preferred over sihca as fiber in tyres due to the challenge in dispersing sihca in rubber compounds. With the new development, e.g. in situ sol gel silica, admicellar polymerization and polymer-encapsulated sihca, the applications of nano-silica in NR and modified NRs are widened. 

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